Operation Smile: Making children cry, and possible photoshop? ( pizzagate )

submitted by bumbleberries

So I was looking at Operation Smile , the organisation which child-trafficker Laura Silsby previously ran a fundraiser for. One of the directors is Cindy McCain, who is also a director of ICMEC launched by Hillary Clinton. ICMEC is also connected to Laura Silsby through AlertSense.

Operation Smile provides cleft lip surgeries to children for free worldwide. According to Wikipedia , it occurs in 1 to 2 per 1000 births in the developed world. I don't know how common it is in third world countries, but watching a video of Operation Smile seemed really unnatural to me. Here are some of the strange points:

So it was clear to me that somebody with a sick sense of humor made the video. Clearly not a legitimate company. They're asking for $250 donations to make a child smile, while making children cry in their own promotional videos.

Then I was looking at an article on its website to find a photo of a family with 3 kids with cleft lip . Three with cleft lip? Strange. Apparently cleft lip is an epidemic in third world countries. Then I spotted what looks like an incomplete photoshop job:

SturdyGal

Your connections are solid and everything these people touch is some kind of scam. They may have tried to make the photos worse, but a quick google reveals cleft palate to be a pretty big problem in general. To me it is very likely that out of a dozen or so kids, three would have it because I believe cleft palate is caused by toxins, defective genes and drugs. So the whole family could have been exposed to a toxin, vaccine, drug trial or have a defective gene.

bumbleberries

True, I'll look into it another time.

SturdyGal

Don't get me wrong bumble berries, I think you have got some good stuff in a good area. I will look more too.

ConcernedParent2

I do think there may be something shady going on with these operations, especially if it links to Silsby.

That being said, when it comes to spreading awareness campaigns and trying to get donations, you have to appeal to people by playing with their emotions. If they just showed a happy child with a cleft lip, people aren't going to see it as a urgent matter. If you show a sad child and show the difficulties they go through due to their cleft lip, people will be much more likely to donate because they see it as an actual hindrance for those poor children.

This practice is not unique to this organization, all charities and organizations do this. Think about those sappy animal shelter commercials; they could have found some happy animals or found a shelter that takes better care of their animals, but they didn't. Why? Because all those pitiful looking animals compels you to donate.

carmencita

You make a very good point, but the fact that Silsby is connected is a reason to keep researching. It may lead to a dead end except for stupid ideas to get donations. I still don't think it is " kosher" to use those tactics. I usually turn away those ads. If I want to help an org. I send them money but not through tv ads.

ConcernedParent2

I agree, that's why I also said that I believe there may be something shady with that organization if it is linked with Silsby. I just wanted to point out that these advertising tactics are nothing new or unique when it comes to charities. I posted in another comment showing how studies show that you will get more money by appealing to negative emotions. It's shitty, but it's not the charities fault that people are more willing to donate when you show a crying child.

carmencita

Yes. If you have to pinch a child to get money then how can you call yourself charitable? Hah. We donate to the Salvation Army and a Private Animal Org. a couple more. One for the elderly that supplies meals and Christmas presents for children. I never give to anything on tv. I am now seeing many of these children's charities being suspect. Ugh.

ConcernedParent2

I'm suspicious of most charities, even before pizzagate came along. Lots of charities use donations as their own slush fund. Even charities with good intentions can be prone to wasting their donations due to not knowing how to manage their finances correctly. I stick with small local charities that I know have good intentions and they provide proof that the donations they receive are being put to good use.

carmencita

:)

bumbleberries

I just added an extra image under "white blobs".

I'm not really inclined to believe that all charities do this. The crying girl looks like she's legitimately ashamed of herself, and the milk thing is just bad taste. It looks like child abuse to me, as though a psychopath made the video to appeal to our emotions through tears.

ConcernedParent2

Those blobs look like bits of tissue or cotton to me.

I deal with charities a lot, especially since my children's schools love to send them home with piles of magazines and pamphlets begging for money. They always go out of their way to make things sappy and sad as possible, sometimes to the point of being cringy.

This isn't a new concept, and the studies behind it are well documented. Just one study :

Experiment 1 and 2 examined images used in charity advertising in terms of the emotions they generated in respondents. Images of children were found to be particularly powerful in generating emotional reactions. Experiments 3 and 4 manipulated emotional intensity generated by images within donation requests, and found that images showing negative emotions generated significantly larger monetary donations, and significantly larger donations of items and time.

bumbleberries

Hmm, I'll look into it a bit more another day I guess. Deleting it for now as I don't want to push an unsubstantiated claim. Looked like an incomplete set of teeth to protrude out of the upper lip to me.

ConcernedParent2

It's a little hard to tell what that is since the video isn't exactly the best quality.

I would still keep looking into the organization. Like I said, if Silsby is involved, then there is a good reason to be suspicious.